


Blank Slate

by Arithanas



Category: The Little Mermaid (1989)
Genre: Bad Ending, Dark, Drowning, Gen, Magic, Pining, Possession, Psychological Horror, Tentacles, Trapped
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 17:17:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21201260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arithanas/pseuds/Arithanas
Summary: Another unfortunate soul fell for the Sea Witch vain promises.





	Blank Slate

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rosefox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosefox/gifts).

Magic was a funny business, it never worked like it was supposed to…

Vanessa was sure she had a life. She could still feel the weight of the sun; the way wet flour crumbled under her hands; the strain as her arms worked to make dough under the tender, yet strict eyes of a woman. 

A woman Vanessa had known all her life. 

Memories caressed the edge of her mind. Gentle moments caressed the edges of her mind.

That woman’s voice sang to her, her fingers ran through her wet hair as it dried in the sun. Warmth bathed both of them.

Her face, that woman’s face, was the first thing to blur in her mind. The only thing that remained was her voice, and then that too was fading. Oh, it faded away the more she tried to keep it close… Vanessa sighed and water rushed inside her mouth. Water that tasted like tears...

Inside her mind, dark tentacles moved, slowly but without pause. There was cold and damp inside her mind, rusting away her most inner self...

There was a man too. A big man she thought she should know, but she was not sure anymore. He laughed, holding his gut with both hands. His black mustache had some strands of white. His smile lacked some teeth but it was dashing anyway. Why did Vanessa remember this man? The question made her head hurt, the pressure of the cold sea felt like a crushing vise...

Another dark tendril coiled inside her head and the man vanished, taking with him the secret of his fleeting existence inside Vanessa’s mind.

Her body floated in the cold darkness, rocked by the mercies of the undercurrent. Vanessa cursed the moment she peered at the still darkness of the docks.

The face of a young woman materialized behind her stinging eyelids and the last of Vanessa’s breath escaped her chest.

If she hadn’t wasted her breath, Vanessa would beg the Sea Witch to spare that fragment of her old life, but she had been foolish…

She wished for the moon and the moon was stealing her soul.

Oh, the young girl danced. Vanessa could see Abby’s slender ankles each time she kicked up her peasant skirt. Vanessa could see her own hand sliding over the white shirt. The warmth of Abby’s skin was only surpassed by her amiable smile. 

The moonlight ricocheted over the wave crest. The sky was dark and the moon was round and cold.

“Help me get to a safe place to love Abby,” Vanessa had begged to the Sea Witch. People ask the Sea Witch for the impossible when the moon is big and round in the still surface of the sea at night. Vanessa had always regarded it as a folk tale, but she was desperate. “I’ll do what you ask of me, just let me love Abby like Father loves Mother…”

What a silly girl she was. How naive… Her own name glowed with gold on that wet, damn parchment before the Sea Witch snatched her away.

Magic dug inside her head with dark tentacles. Her chest burned with the need for air, and the sea rocked her a bit more. Another dark limb wound around her heart.

Vanessa had never been more scared in her whole seventeen years…

The wave broke and the air was warm and fragrant. Vanessa opened her mouth, eagerly gulping life-sustaining breath.

The shell around her neck glowed and more tentacles clogged her windpipe. Glorious, radiant tentacles invaded her, making her throat quiver like fresh dough that has been allowed to rise.

Her body washed over the shore. And Vanessa was whole, pure, scoured to a blank slate.

Magic was a funny thing, but that didn’t matter anymore.   


**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to S. and R. who lend their time to catch all the mistakes this author made.


End file.
